Although I don't generally consider myself to have traveled quite far enough into fogey-hood to start with the price-related "in my day" stories (although I suspect that gas prices may drive us all there sooner than planned), it is true that comics were far less expensive when I was a kid. They were also, as it happens, generally less of a quality product, certainly in terms of the physical product (the paper, for example, appears to be of a more durable variety these days), and often in terms of what's on the pages as well. What I mean is that I am not pining for a return of the 35-cent comic book, so don't worry, this isn't going to be that sort of a post.
That doesn't mean that the price of comics isn't important to me.
Like most folks, we do have a limited amount of money to spend on comic books. In general, for me, it means that I spend money on comics rather than on other disposable-income leisure-time items such as DVDs. I don't eat out in fancy restaurants, don't go clubbing or out to bars (did my time there when I was in college and don't miss it a bit :)), only buy the very occasional video or computer game. So, in my world, if I wanted to buy more comics, the money would have to be shifted from somewhere else. And if comic prices were to go up, again, the money would have to be shifted from somewhere else--and chances are it would be shifted from other comics, resulting in my spending about the same amount of money but getting fewer comics.
What I do find myself doing is thinking more before I decide to buy. I order my comics online, and I find that I'm becoming more and more likely to look over the solicitations and say to myself, "Well that looks like it might be good, but I think I'll wait and see, maybe get the trade when it comes out." Granted that I'm more likely to do this with minis or books I don't have a history with, but it's happening.
And it's true that I've developed a fondness for trade paperbacks, just because the format is easier to read--and to re-read. I just have to go over to the bookshelf and get them. When I want to reread my floppies, I have to go get them out of the longbox, maybe take them out of their bags, try to keep the stack from falling over, etc.
So I suppose it would really make more sense, both financially and practically, to just buy the trades of everything.
But I won't. Because I like the episodic nature of the medium. I like getting my fix once a month. And I wouldn't like having to wait six months or more to find out what happened in my favorite titles. But that doesn't necessarily apply to every comic I read, or want to read. For example, I stopped reading Iron Man and Fantastic Four. I might decide to pick up the trades at some point, I don't know, and if that happens I'm not likely to switch back to floppies. On the other hand, right now I'm not buying those titles in any form, and not really missing them, so we'll have to see.
Anyway. According to the above-linked post,
the only comic book that was too expensive was a bad comic book
which is another way of saying that a thing is worth what you're willing to pay for it. And you don't know how much that will be until you're not.
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